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Friday, June 3, 2011

Chillin’ for some Grillin’ Guest Post from Cris Goode

I have a treat for you today! My guest is Cris from GOODEness Gracious! Cris and I met on Twitter. She’s an avid freezer cook.. and just cute as a button too! You’re going to love her post! She’s an avid “freezer cook” and has given us a wealth of information and very helpful tips. Please enjoy, and welcome, my friend Cris!

Miss Jeanette and I met over our love for freezer cooking on Twitter. So, when she said she would like some guest posts, I knew just what to write about.

In my GOODe old days of freezer cooking at my house, I would set aside 1-2 days and do it up right, packing my freezer full and reaping the rewards all month. However, truth be told, life has just gotten too busy lately to be able to tackle full on freezer cooking days at my house…

That is why I am so excited that summer is finally here.

The other day- while I prepared dinner for that night- I stocked my freezer up several treats for my grill without having to go into full out FREEZE-O-RAMA mode. It felt so good to have a stocked freezer again and even better that I didn’t spend hours I didn’t have in the kitchen with a month’s worth of cooking!

First up I grabbed a 4 lb pork loin from Aldis. It cost me $10. But before I was done, I had turned that into $1.67 per family sized meal. I took half of the loin and cut it into boneless chops and set them aside to prepare for freezer marinades.

And another family sized portion for the freezer. One freezer meal down… whew.

While my Shredded Pork was cookin’ up, I divided the boneless chops into three baggies.

Then I pulled out my secret weapons… salad dressing!

Sure, I love all kinds of marinades and even whipped up a batch of Aunt Mary’s Mary-nade (a staple for our grill) for one of these baggies, but mama’s crunched on time and these flavors will be perfect for my meat to marinade in while thawing before making their way to the grill.

Just pick some of your favorite flavors like Balsamic Vinaigrette, Asian Sesame, Caesar Italian and pour about 1 cup in with your meat before freezing.

Force all of the air out of the bag and mix well.

Within a couple of minutes you have several distinct meals awaiting your grill for just the right time.

Another freezer favorite is to pre-make and pre-season our hamburger patties and freeze them individually by layering them between sheets of Press and Seal.

For us that just means pressing them out in a hamburger press and seasoning them with Lawry’s and pepper. However, if you like onion in your burgers, you could add that here too.

We pop these babies in the freezer and they are great for lunch for one or unexpected company for 10!

You just pop the patties on the grill frozen—just like you do the store bought ones, just a lot cheaper and a lot less fat since I used the lower fat beef.

So, within an hour, I had my freezer stocked with 4 pork meals and 2-3 family portions of burgers.

Now all I need to do some similar marinades with chicken to take care of our grill.